"There's nothing to dislike," Mathis said. "If you have a problem with him, you probably have a problem within yourself. That's not just because he's my head coach. If I met him on the street, he's just that type of guy. Some people, if you don't like them, it's you, not them."

It's Caldwell's temperament and consistent approach to his job that's been so well received by Mathis and many of his Detroit teammates.

Caldwell has a reputation for being even-keeled, rarely, if ever, raising his voice. He insists a shift in octaves in his repertoire, but he prefers to use it sparingly to achieve the desired effect.

"I played for guys when I was playing and guys were screaming and yelling," Caldwell said. "Pretty soon that sounded like his normal, audible tone and you end up ignoring it. So, when I have to go up and octave or two, I guarantee you it will have a little bit different response than most people in that regard, and I do from time to time."

Mathis has yet to see his coach deviate from his standard tone, but sees subtleties in Caldwell's conversations when he wants a player to know he's not pleased.

"I haven't seen him get loud yet, either. but the seriousness will change," Mathis said. "The tone of his conversation will change, just to know he's a little more serious, he means business, play time is over."

Caldwell prefers to be an observer during practice, doing the majority of his coaching off the field.

"I do instruction in the classroom, I do instruction when we have our team meetings and I tell them what I want," Caldwell said. "Then we go out and see if we can get it done.

"Today, we'll grade it, we'll look at it and if I didn't get exactly what I want, I'll point that out on film," he continued. "I'll show them what I want, we'll come back out and we'll go at it again. That's kind of how we work and how we operate."

Mathis believes Caldwell's approach shows a lot of faith in his players and that builds trust, which could pay dividends on Sundays.

"He's allowing us to be ourselves," Mathis said. "But there is a structure he wants us to uphold. When you have a guy like that, it's easy to uphold it because you don't want to disappoint him. You play harder for guys like that."